An illustration from a 1903 issue of The Windsor magazine.  The caption reads: "I know I was not dreaming."

An illustration from a 1907 issue of The Windsor magazine.  The caption reads: "A dull, unearthly glare surrounded it."

"The Fog Folk":  an illustration from a 1907 issue of The Windsor magazine.

An illustration from a 1903 issue of The Windsor magazine.

Did you know that buxom has both an obsolete and an archaic meaning?  Obsolete: compliant, obliging.  Archaic: lively, good-tempered.

The following chapter plates appear in The Man Trap by Sears Gallagher (1909).  Titles include:

• Chapter Two, in which a Sliding Panel is Mentioned
• Chapter Eight, in which the Plot Thickens
• Chapter Nine, in which the Unexpected Happens
• Chapter Fourteen, in which a Door is Opened
  

An illustration from an 1895 issue of The Windsor magazine.

Forty-four years before children found a doorway to a magical world within a cabinet (C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 1950), children found a doorway to a magical world within a cupboard (Mrs. Molesworth's The Bolted Door, 1906).

The way sea life keeps track of tides is less poetic than salty romantics would have you believe.  (The illustration is from Five Minutes' Stories by Mrs. Molesworth, 1888.)

Though the famed comedian/juggler/alcoholic W. C. Fields made his Broadway debut in 1906 at the age of 26, we're going to register this 1906 image from London's Punch as a precursor to the archetype that later became his signature.  The caption reads: "Thoughts for non-thinkers.  Be sure you raise no more spirits than you can conjure down."

"My scepticism soon left me":  an illustration from A Bid for Fortune by Guy Newell Bootby, 1895.

Friendship is better than sleep, at least according to the fairies.  From Out and All About, Fables For Old and Young by H. A. Page, 1874.

Did you know that Santa, back when he was svelte, used to deliver presents on New Year's Eve and not Christmas Eve?  This illustration is from The Family Magazine, 1840.

An illustration from a 1900 issue of The Windsor magazine.

One hundred and eighteen years before Twitter, the immature gathered out of doors to exchange "five minutes' stories."  (The illustration is from Five Minutes' Stories by Mrs. Molesworth, 1888.)

Eighty-two years before Coldplay proclaimed, "It was all yellow," everything was turning yellow in The Panama Plot by Arthur Benjamin Reeve (1918).

Did you know that Santa's nightmare word is "unfilled"?  We find proof in Life, 1918.